He only had eyes for his dainty ballerina.
Thomas waited a few minutes before raising his hand in the air. By the time he lowered it back to the armrest, Boone was at his side again.
Without preamble, Thomas said, “My father wants me to be married.”
As his closest confidant—his only confidant—Boone was already well aware of that fact. “Yes, sir.”
He pointed at the stage. Cinderella performed a flawless jeté to a round of enthused applause.
“Her. I want her.”
Boone bowed his head. “I understand.”
With barely a whisper, his bodyguard was gone. Thomas sank back in his seat, hungry for another glimpse.
Was it her beauty? Her strength? Her talent? Perhaps. Thomas didn’t waste time wondering what it was about her that was so attractive. He was a man who always knew what he wanted, usually from first glance. In business, his instinct made him millions. His love life would be no different.
In the soaring chords and the mesmerizing display of athletic ability and grace, he had found the woman who was meant to be his.
And he would stop at nothing to have her.
Thomas could have arranged to meet her in so many different ways. By the time the last bouquet of roses fell at her feet, Boone knew that her name was—quite fittingly—Grace Delaney, she was twenty-seven years old, and she was single. Thomas could’ve left his box and, using his charm and his name, arranged to meet her after that very performance.
Too easy, he thought. And too impulsive.
He was a planner. In everything he did, Thomas liked to have each and every detail plotted and planned so that there was no way the outcome would be anything but what he desired.
There was no other option.
For the first time that he could remember, he desired a woman in a way that would last well past morning. He desired that woman. And he would do whatever he had to to make sure that he got her. And once he did? His prima ballerina would never get away from him.
He followed her home that very night, unwilling to let her out of his sight for even a moment. All through the tedious travel using public transportation—the subway, the long train ride, the bus—he hung back, Boone his silent shadow as always. Thomas kept waiting for this obsessive need to possess a stranger to fade.
It didn’t.
By the time she let herself into a small house in a suburb more than an hour and a half’s travel from the city’s performance center, Thomas convinced himself that he wasn’t following her to satisfy his curiosity, but because he had to keep her safe. Young, vulnerable beauty on her own, oblivious to the dangers that lurked out of reach. She wore headphones, listened to music, and read off of a device throughout her travel. She never once noticed the intent way he watched her.
Her obliviousness only made her more attractive to him. While the train was half-filled, the late bus even more empty, Boone’s size, Thomas’s looks, and their expensive suits meant they caught their fair share of stares.
He could’ve taken any of the other women home with him. But he didn’t.
Thomas wanted Grace.
And, as Boone arranged for a car service to take them back into the city, Thomas knew exactly how he would get her.
It only took a little digging before his plan was a go. Despite her career, Grace Delaney was like any other single woman in her late-twenties: she was a member of an online dating site.
A wry grin crossed his handsome face as he compulsively read her profile, flipping through the same five photos again and again. So Grace was looking for love?
He would make sure she found it with him.
Thomas didn’t want her to want him because of his father’s legacy. Still, he learned from an early age to use every advantage he had. When he filled out the application, he boldly used the name Tommy Mathers.
Boone’s intel, as always, was spot on. Thomas didn’t even need to use his considerable skills to hack into the system to ensure that their applications matched. Within twenty-four hours, he received a notification that she was a perfect fit for him.
As if he didn’t already know that. He tailored every response on purpose, choosing his answers carefully based on everything Boone’s surveillance—and his online stalking—had discovered for him. In their first correspondence, she mentioned that this must be fate, finding someone who had so much in common that lived close enough that he fit the parameters of her search.
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